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T O P I C R E V I E W

heng44

Sometimes you have to be lucky as a spaceflight historian. My friend Noah Bradley recently bought via eBay a large number of sketches, paintings and documents which had belonged to Allen A. Stevens. The name Stevens will probably not mean anything to space enthusiasts, but his work is widely known.

During the 1960s and 1970s Stevens was a graphic designer for the Space Division of Rockwell International in California. The box that Noah bought contained the artistic legacy of Al Stevens. His belongings included various original artworks that were designs for the emblems of half a dozen Apollo mission. More importantly, the papers that were included proved beyond any doubt that Stevens was the man who made the final designs for the mission patches for Apollo 1, Apollo 7, Apollo 9 and Apollo 10. The maker of these emblems had not previously been identified.

Details about Stevens and his work will be published in an article I wrote for the June issue of "Spaceflight." There will be many illustrations such as the one below. This is an early design for the Apollo 7 emblem, featuring the phoenix rising out of the ashes of the Apollo 1 fire.

Bill Hunt

Wow, that's fascinating, Ed. I'll looking forward to reading the piece! You'll have to let us know when it's on magazine racks.

KSCartist

Looking forward to the article. This Steven's piece of the "Phoenix rising from the ashes" is a great example of his incredible talent.

astroborg

I wonder if Mr. Stevens is the artist responsible for the patch and art appearing at the bottom of the Apollo 8 web page at Gene Dorr's Space Mission Patches website.

The graphic elements look remarkably similar.

heng44

Rich, he is! That will also be in my article...

andrewcli

I also noticed on the Aurora Galleries that Mr. Stevens also had his hand on the Apollo 11 patch, lot 683, October, 2006.

heng44

Stevens made the patches for Apollo 1, 7, 9 and 10. He made designs for Apollo 8, 11, 12 and 17 as well as Skylab 3 (and possibly more).

Sometimes you have to be lucky as a space flight historian. A friend, Noah Bradley, purchased on eBay recently a collection of sketches, paintings and documents that had belonged to one 'Allen A. Stevens'. That name will probably not immediately mean much to space enthusiasts, but his artwork is widely recognized.

Born on June 16, 1915 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Al Stevens worked during the 1960s and 70s as a graphic designer for the Space Division of Rockwell International in California. He retired in 1978 and, after suffering from several strokes over a period of 13 years, he died on May 21, 1994 in Orange, California.

The box that Noah bought contained Stevens' artistic legacy. His belongings included various original designs for the emblems from half a dozen Apollo missions...

John Charles

I enjoyed reading this article on Al Stevens' designs for early Apollo patches. In reference to the Apollo 7 patch, this weekend I had the opportunity to show Walt Cunningham the concept Ed described in the first article in this thread. He recognized it from the Internet — possibly even this thread — but didn't seem to recall it from 1968. In addition, he said he designed the Apollo 7 patch.

I offer this as additional background to Ed's interesting article on Stevens, to illustrate how events four decades ago can have multiple interpretations.

heng44

John, interesting observation by Walt Cunningham. In my opinion he 'designed' the Apollo 7 emblem in the same sense that Gene Cernan designed the Apollo 17 emblem: he gave directions to the artist. But still I think Al Stevens should be (co-)credited for the final product.

heng44

One more point concerning Walt Cunningham's remarks. Some time ago he signed a few of the original artworks for Noah.

On one of the phoenix designs he wrote: "The phoenix is what we really wanted." On another: "Interesting - would have worked".

One of the final versions prompted this comment: "This one expressed my concept. Needs one small change". This suggests to me that the crew (Cunningham) suggested themes, which Stevens then turned into designs for approval or rejection.

KSCartist

My opinion based on all of the posts tell me that Cunningham was probably the "patch project manager" for the crew. As with today's shuttle crews it's usually a first time flyer who gathers the crew input and deals with the artist.

Cunningham probably feels that he did design the patch because of his role — and he deserves to feel that way. But the evidence clearly points to Al Stevens who created the actual art that became the patch. Thanks to Ed and Noah and Larry now we know too.

heng44

I received an interesting reaction to the article, although it has nothing to do with Al Stevens.

Wayne Begnaud wrote me that he participated in the design of the ASTP crew patch. In August 2007 he attended SpaceFest in Mesa, Arizona, and spoke to several former Apollo moonwalkers and Skylab astronauts, as well as emblem artist Robert McCall.

Jack Lousma told him that the patch design for STS-3 was made by McCall. However, when launch day approached he had to fly out to McCall's studio in Arizona in his T-38 to pick-up the patch design before McCall had time to complete it. Lousma then took the incomplete artwork to his former Skylab commander Alan Bean, who completed patch details in the payload bay of the shuttle. Wayne later spoke to Bean, who confirmed his contribution to the STS-3 patch.

I thought this would be interesting to the patch lovers here...

E2M Lem Man

Ed, I just want you to know that retirees knew Stevens here for his creative art as well. We found one painting that the city of Downey was happy to get. It focuses on the S-II and dates about 1970. (A two engined nuclear powered S-II gives it away!)

Many "Bald Eagles" (retirees) have been discussing the article.

KSCartist

Honoring Apollo artist Allen E. Stevens and in commemorationof the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Program

Many people admired the beautiful artwork of the mission emblems during the Apollo Program. Until recently the general public was unaware of the identity of the artist who designed four of the early mission emblems. The crews of Apollo 1, Apollo 7, Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 wore the work of artist Allen S. Stevens.

But before the final designs were arrived at, Mr. Stevens painted many draft designs. Working with each crew Stevens evolved the draft designs into the final patch that the astronauts wore during their missions. While not selected as the official mission emblem Stevens also created designs for Apollo 8, Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 17.

Tim Gagnon, portrait and graphic artist of Titusville, FL who has worked with two flight crews to design their patches, has organized this commemorative set of Apollo Mission Emblem drafts in tribute to the man whose work inspired many. This will be a set of seven 4" fully embroidered patches.

Hart Sastrowardoyo

Which begs the question: Did he also design emblems for Apollos 13 through 16?

heng44

If he did, I think we would have found some clues among his possessions.

andrewcli

I received the patches today and they are AWESOME! Haven't decided which is my favorite one, but I'm leaning towards the Apollo 11 patch.

space4u

My favorites are Apollo 11 and Apollo 17. I think I like them better than the originals!

heng44

Great detail and colors. This is a very nice final result of the article that made Stevens famous among us space buffs.

GoesTo11

After being on the fence for a while, I ordered a set of Tim's Al Stevens patches, and I'm very glad I did. I got them today and they are GORGEOUS... the pictures here and in the "Spaceflight" article don't do them justice at all.

perineau

Does anyone have a picture of the embroidered Apollo 10 original art patch by Al Stevens? Any help would be most appreciated.